Old South

The Old South refers to the rural, agriculturally-based society and economy that existed in the American South from the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The Old South existed in the former British colonies of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, where the economy and society were dominated by plantations (often worked by African-American slaves) and small farms. The South developed a distinct "Dixie" culture, with a planting elite dominating the politics, economy, and society of the South, while poor white farmers worked the countryside. The South's ports of Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, and other cities exported the tobacco, sugar, cotton, and other crops grown on the plantations, making the South's economy dependent on the plantation system. The Old South was flatteringly described by the author Margaret Mitchell in her book Gone with the Wind in 1936: "Here in this pretty world gallantry took its last bow...Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave." From the 1830s to the 1860s, the South was stereotyped as a land of aristocratic planters, beautiful southern belles, poor white trash, faithful household slaves, and superstitious fieldhands. Owing to the South's reliance on plantation agriculture, it was the strongest support base of the Democratic-Republican Party and the Democratic Party, both of which supported slavery, states' rights, and populism; they attracted both wealthy landowers (due to their support for slavery) and poor white farmers (due to their populism). The Old South formed the core of the secessionist Confederate States in 1860, caused by the election of the abolitionist Republican Party's candidate Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. During the war, the South was devastated by William T. Sherman's forces during his "March to the Sea", and the plantations were ravaged and several cities burned to the ground. The end of the Civil War in 1865, the constitutional abolition of slavery, and the start of Reconstruction led to the demise of the Old South, although the Democratic "Solid South" continued until after 1968.